The San Francisco online person-to-person loan facilitator Prosper Marketplace Inc. says its third attempt to promote its Web site on Facebook Inc.'s social network has found a large audience.
Adding a financial incentive to one of the earlier attempts — a news feed that lets users keep track of their loan bids — helped Prosper sign up about 3,700 Facebook users of the application, the loan facilitator said Monday.
Facebook users visit the site to read updates from friends and play games such as Scrabulous.
Prosper made its first attempt to promote itself through Facebook in May of last year with a game called Fantasy Banker that let players, including non-Prosper customers, judge the likelihood that listings on Prosper's site would be fully funded. But Fantasy Banker drew few players, and Prosper shut it down in November.
"Finance can't compete in the fun category," Chris Larsen, Prosper's founder and chief executive, said in a recent interview. "You can't compete with Scrabulous."
Prosper's second attempt on Facebook was the news feed, which it launched in October. That service had drawn only 400 users by April, when Prosper added the financial incentive: Lenders who use the feed can receive instant credit for transfers of as little as $50 into Prosper accounts. People who do not use the feed can receive instant credit only if they initiate transfers of at least $500. (Smaller transfers will not receive credit until the funds arrive.)
Lending Club Corp., a rival person-to-person loan facilitator that also uses Facebook's site, would not comment for this story.
